Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Thomas Edsall discusses the difficulties in trying to address wealth inequality through a money-infused electoral system: Five years ago, for example, Adam Bonica, a political scientist at Stanford, published “Why Hasn’t Democracy Slowed Rising Inequality?” Economic theory, he wrote, holds that “inequality should be at least partially self-correcting ...

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David Brady, Ryan Finnigan and Sabine Hubgen challenge the claim that there’s any relationship between single motherhood and poverty. And Doug Saunders writes that there’s an opening for progressive movements to take back the theme of family values which obviously bear no relationship to the policy cruelty ...

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Andre Picard argues that Bernie Sanders’ trip to highlight Canada’s health care system shouldn’t be taken as an indication we lack plenty of room for improvement. And Margot Sanger-Katz writes that Sanders indeed learned lessons about the holes in our health coverage. – David Suzuki discusses the ...

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Hugh Mackenzie writes that the biggest problem with the Libs’ closing tax loopholes for private corporations was the failure to push for far more tax fairness: Any tax reform that isn’t just a give away creates winners and losers. If the goal is to make the tax system ...

Following up on my candidate profiles for the Saskatchewan NDP’s leadership campaign, I’ll point out one obvious change in dynamics since 2013 – starting with this observation from the previous campaign (emphasis added): As long as there were four leadership candidates in the race, there were several ways to try to draw dividing lines among ...

Assorted content to start your week. – George Monbiot offers his suggestion for a new political narrative to build a better world than the one currently dominated by neoliberalism: (B)y coming together to revive community life we, the heroes of this story, can break the vicious circle. Through invoking our capacity for togetherness and belonging, ...

David Ricci’s Politics Without Stories was released in the midst of an election campaign which upended many assumptions about U.S. politics. But it nonetheless offers a plausible explanation for much of the U.S.’ political environment as it’s continued to evolve – while leaving open what strike me as interesting questions as to whether what he ...

This and that for your Thursday reading. – David Leonhardt looks at the glaring growth of inequality in the U.S., while Matt Bruening charts how that trend is based entirely on capital ownership. And in the face of the Republicans’ plan for another round of giveaways to the rich, the New York Times’ editorial board ...

The latest from the NDP’s federal leadership campaign. – Kristy Kirkup reports on the release of Jagmeet Singh’s climate change policy statement.And Charlie Angus has offered his road map toward a transition to renewable energy, while the CP reports on his plan for a more fair relationship with Indigenous peoples. – Meanwhile, Len Gillis reports ...

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Nina Shapiro comments on the price of privatizing public goods. And George Monbiot weighs in on how the Grenfell Tower fire confirms that what corporatist politicians deride as “red tape” is in fact vital protection for people: For years successive governments have built what they call a ...

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Nick Falvo lists ten things to know about social programs in Canada. And Mike Crawley offers a painful example of Ontario’s social safety net and employment law both falling short, as injured workers are forced to go to work even when ill or injured in the absence of ...

Thanks to the bravery of whistleblowers we know that the Five Eyes are monitoring all internet chatter regardless of who’s talking. This is a big concern for people who care about freedom and rights to have personal communication. As a result, Amnesty International put together a review of messaging apps so you can make an ...

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Michael Bader argues that a cynical view of politics represents the most important barrier to progressive victories: Cynicism is a corrosive force in our politics and culture, but one that is invisible to us because it seems so normal. My patients feel the same way. They keep ...

This and that for your weekend reading. – Nicholas Kristof points out how important a stable and effective public service looks from the standpoint of a country which doesn’t benefit from one. And Chi Onwurah discusses how the UK Cons – like their right-wing brethren elsewhere – are determined to move in the wrong direction: ...

Ideally, a new Parliament should have the opportunity to talk about issues of far more direct significance and practical value than keeping even offensive speech such as Donald Trump’s out of Canada. And so it’s a bit disappointing to see Tom Mulcair pushing that issue. That said, it’s not hard to understand the reasoning behind ...

For those wondering, I’m indeed following up on these posts and working my way through some of the factors in the NDP’s federal election result. (For more on the subject, see the latest from Lawrence Martin, and Desmond Cole talking to Cheri DiNovo.) I’ll turn now to what’s often been labeled the most important turning ...

The post-mortems on the NDP’s federal election campaign continue to roll in. And it’s particularly a plus to see that there will be a systematic effort within the party itself to review the choices which led to the election results – both for better and for worse. In the meantime, I’ll continue pointing out my ...

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Mike Barber highlights how Canada’s federal election campaign was dominated by messages pushed from the top down rather than citizens’ concerns. Erna Paris recognizes that we can’t afford to be complacent about the place of outright bigotry in shaping voters’ decisions. And Christopher Flavelle writes that the ...

I’ve pointed out previously that the Libs’ advantage during the federal election came from the fact that the primary message against them was one which could be disproven. And it’s worth also noting the converse of that: the Libs’ own theme of “real change” was difficult for anybody to disprove during a campaign in the ...

Finally, let’s look at the Libs’ campaign as tomorrow’s election day approaches. In case there was any doubt, the Libs’ main challenge was to try to cast Justin Trudeau as being “ready” in response to the Cons’ saturation ad campaigns. And while Trudeau likely benefited from the lowered expectations created by that very campaign, he ...

I’ve previously pointed out that others were far too quick to write off the NDP in Canada’s federal election. But it’s safe to say by now that it will be a surprise for the NDP to reach the heights it achieved earlier – even if that leaves plenty of room for both upside and downside ...

Yes, plenty of people are pointing out Stephen Harper’s decision to be less prime ministerial, more game show host as the election campaign comes to an end. But we should note also that he’s doing that in the face of a noteworthy cautionary tale. After all, the last time Harper used a TV format gimmick ...

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Edward Keenan writes that a lack of affordable child care is the crucial financial pressure facing families across the income spectrum. And Michael Wolfson discusses the dangers of talking about taxes in a vacuum without recognizing what we lose by failing to make sure everybody pays a ...

Following up on this post, the stretch run of the election campaign (particularly a holiday weekend with advance polling already underway) is exactly the time when our messages in talking to unpersuaded voters will matter most in shaping the results. And I’ll offer a few suggestions as to how to argue for both a new ...

There’s been a flurry of discussion elsewhere about the NDP’s campaign over the past couple of weeks, and I’ll chime in quickly with my own take on how the campaign has developed so far – and what we should hope for as it reaches its conclusion. To start with, I see two points where there’s ...